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Project management is a puzzle at best and a full-on enigma at worst. Even if you have been working in the field for a while, you can’t be sure about “Everything” related to it.
This is why we have the best collection of project management software’s to take care of all the different tasks and processes related to our projects.
But how to choose the best one?
Obviously, when there are so many different options, we are spoiled for choice.
So, to help you with the selection process, we are going to talk about two amazing project management applications that can help you easily manage different activities regarding your project.
These applications are well equipped with different core features that help you optimize your project development process, and help you maintain your growth curve, over a long period.
nTask vs Microsoft Planner vs Trello
| Systems | nTask | Microsoft Planner | Trello |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | |||
| Website | ntaskmanager.com | products.office.com/business/task-management-software | trello.com |
| License | Commercial Web-based service (SaaS) | Commercial | Web-based service (SaaS) |
| Mobile Apps | Android iOS | Android iOS | Android iOS |
| Recurring Tasks | Yes | No | No |
| Gantt Charts | Yes | No | No |
| Risk Management | Yes | No | No |
| Time Tracking | Yes | No | No |
| Notifications | Desktop push Mobile push | Email Mobile push |
The software applications in question are:
Both these applications are amazing when it comes to project management and are great tools to optimize your task management and overall project organization activities.
Let’s take a look at how both of them work, and how they can help you with your projects, according to your requirements.
Microsoft Planner
Microsoft planner is an amazing project management software that is included in the Office 365 enterprise subscription.
The software is quite similar to Trello in many areas like the setup process, UI, and the process of creating tasks and boards.
Key Features
- Assignment tracking
- Charting
- Commenting
- Data synchronization
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Event scheduling
- File management
- Performance reports
- Preview images
- Progress charts
- Tagging
- Task comments
- Task labels
- Task planning
- Task sorting buckets
- Task tracking
Pricing
- Paid subscription starts at $5/month
What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Planner?
Pros
- While using the software, you can easily add different team members to the plans that you have mapped out.
Just start writing the names of the team members and they will appear automatically in the search list, which you can select and confirm in a jiffy.
- Using the software is quite easy as the interface is quite responsive and intuitive, to say the least.
Even if you’re a novice and you haven’t spent much time on the software, you can easily traverse your way around all the different tasks and processes that the application has to offer. - There is an amazing calendar embedded within the software that allows you to sync up different tasks and processes according to the dates you set for them.
This helps you to track those tasks and keep an eye on the performance of the team members so that they complete their tasks and not slack off. - The software has an incredible notification feature that lets alert you whenever there is an update regarding the tasks and processes that you are working on.
This notification feature sends automatic emails about the tasks to all the different stakeholders and team members associated with them. - The application provides you ample space to write up a proper description of the tasks, provides sections to write comments, provides labels to specify the status of the tasks, and a proper checklist to track the progress of tasks.
- The app provides a feature called Planner Hub. This is an important one as it allows you to break down to big chunks of information about tasks and the time associated with them, into smaller pieces that can be easily monitored and assess the progress of the project.
- Using the software, you can see the tasks that have been assigned to all the team members that are in the development team.
This is helpful when you want to delegate tasks to different team members, to make sure that the work is divided equally, and no single employee is overloaded.
Microsoft Planner And Jira
Cons
- Currently, one of the main cons that the software has is that it does not allow any user to access the dashboard if they are not a part of the team.
To access the dashboard, the user has to be registered with Office 365 under their company email. - Another limitation of the software is the number of checklists that you can create for a single task. You can only create a single checklist per task.
This checklist can only contain 20 checkboxes.
Microsoft Planner And Flow
This can be an issue for a lot of big companies that have massive projects with lots of different elements associated with them. Trello excels in this department as it allows multiple checklists with unlimited checkboxes.
- You also can’t tag someone using the @tag command. This is an important feature that comes in quite handy when you want to direct someone’s attention to a certain task or process.
Trello
Now let’s talk about another key player in the project management industry; that would be Trello.
This tool is an absolute gem. If you haven’t used it yet, you should check it out.
The application is an affordable team organization, project management, and collaboration tool that uses ‘Trello cards’ to display the entire information regarding the project.
This information can be seen by everyone related to the project, not necessarily a registered member of Trello.
Key Features
- Activity logging
- Boards
- Lists
- API availability
- Attach photos, drawings, sketches & mockups
- Due date tracking
- Security & encryption
And about a bazillion more…
Pricing
- Paid subscription starts at $12.50/month
This app comparison might interest you:
What are the Pros and Cons of Trello?
Pros
- The first step while using any application is to create an account, and Trello has made the account creation process very easy for everyone.
You can Signup on the platform, add different boards related to your work, and get to work. Simple! - The application is quite affordable compared to some of the other bank-breakers out there. The free version of the application is packed with features and offers different integrations with a lot of third-apps that you might be using already.
- The software is very fast and reliable. You don’t have to wait around for anything and in the past 5 years or so, the app was only down a couple of times, but just for a few moments.
- If you are a manager, assigning different tasks to the employees is an absolute no-brainer, as you can just name the card after them and they will instantly know what they have to do.
- The application is incredibly user-friendly and quite popular, as it can be downloaded and used on both the iOS and Android platforms.
- You can also tag different team members using the @tag feature, which is something Microsoft Planner doesn’t have.
Cons
- One major project management feature is Time-tracking which is sadly absent in Trello’s free version. If you want to add features like this in your application, then you need to pay.
- Unlike Microsoft Planner, Trello doesn’t have a calendar embedded in the dashboard, which is disappointing as it is an important feature that allows the managers to track the work of their employees according to the dates that they set on the calendar.
- You can’t upload attachments to the Trello cards that have a bigger size, in the free version. You have to purchase a subscription to do that.
- One other feature that MS Planner provides but Trello doesn’t is, generating detailed reports about the tasks and processes included in the project.
Check this out:
Conclusion
So, Trello or Microsoft Planner? Which one to choose?
As you can probably guess from that detailed comparison above, it all comes down to personal preference. Whether you compromise on price, features, or an overall number of features, you will still have an amazing project management tool that can help in your PM activities.
If you can’t decide based on the aforementioned pros and cons, you should try both tools to find out the perfect fit for you.
Happy Hunting.
Better Planning & Management
Improve performance & visualize progress with nTask
The Microsoft Planner Connector
Today we're excited to announce that the number one request on our ideas forum has been completed: a connector to Microsoft Planner! With the Planner connector you can create tasks based on any of the hundreds of different triggers that Microsoft Flow supports today. Here are a few example templates:
In addition to these templates, you can create flows from scratch that get data from Planner or update your existing Planner tasks.
Monitor User Licenses in the Admin center
In the past few months, we've received requests from multiple administrators to provide a way to view a list of users, from their organization, who are using PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, or both. Many administrators were also interested in knowing the licenses of these users.
If you’re an Office 365 Global admin or an Azure Active Directory tenant admin, you can now download a list of users in your organization who not only are licensed to use PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, or both but also have accessed either of those products. The list contains each user’s name, email address, license type, and other information. For example, a user might have:
- A trial license for PowerApps or Microsoft Flow, or,
- Access to both products through an Office 365 license, or,
- Access to both products through a Dynamics 365 license, or,
- Access from PowerApps and Microsoft Flow plans
Download the list of users
In the admin center, click or tap User licenses near the left edge (only available to O365 Global admins or AAD tenant admins)
1.Click or tap Download a list of active user licenses.
The file might take a few minutes to download.
2.Wait a few minutes for the .csv file to download, and then open it in Excel.
Note: If you close the window before the file finishes downloading, you might have to restart the process.
This example shows two users who have licenses to both PowerApps and Microsoft Flow through different means. Jane Doe has access through a subscription to Office 365, and John Doe got a trial license for each product.
Both users have accessed PowerApps or Microsoft Flow. There might be more users in the organization who have license to access PowerApps and Microsoft Flow, but have never accessed these products. These users will not appear in this list. You can view all the user licenses from Office 365 admin center.
Microsoft Planner And Teams
If a user has left the organization, the list will show Unknown in columns such as User name and Email address. Also, there is a known-issue where some of the columns might still have value as Unknown even for the users who are still in the organization. In such a case, please try downloading the file again after a few minutes.
If you want to add more user licenses, then you can do so from Office 365 admin center.
Microsoft Planner And Pencil Tutorial
Introducing the PowerApps Community Plan
One of the questions we have received is if there is there a way to develop Microsoft Flow skills for more than 90 days. We are now announcing the PowerApps Community Plan (which includes Microsoft Flow) and supports exactly that. With the PowerApps Community Plan you get a free environment for individual use with functionality including the Common Data Service (CDS). In this environment you can explore and learn everything about Microsoft Flow and PowerApps for free, but the PowerApps Community Plan is not intended for production use.
Microsoft Planner And Project
If you are an existing user of Visual Studio Dev Essentials, the PowerApps Community Plan is now included with your benefits. Inclusion into the Visual Studio Pro and Enterprise subscriptions is coming soon.
You can read more about the community plan on the PowerApps blog here.